French authorities have arrested seven people in connection with the terrorist attack on a French satirical newspaper Wednesday.
The two gunman, however, are still at large.
Two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi are believed to be the gunman who shot and killed 12 people inside the French publication Charlie Hebdo. Cherif has a criminal record of serving 18 months in prison for criminal association with a terrorist organization in 2005. He was part of an Islamist cell that called for French citizens to go to Iraq to fight Americans.
The man who drove the getaway car surrendered to authorities Wednesday night. Hamyd Mourad, 18, is reportedly working with authorities to identify anyone who helped in the planning of the attack.
Authorities say that seven people connected to the brothers are under arrest. They have not said what charges will be brought against them.
French president Francois Hollande has called for a national day of mourning.
“Nothing can divide us, nothing should separate us,” Hollande said in a statement. “Freedom will always be stronger than barbarity. France has always known how to defeat its enemies when it has known how to defend its values. Let us be united and we shall triumph.”
A military court in Judea sentenced the mastermind of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers to three life sentences.
Hussam Kawasameh was convicted last week for the planning and financing of the terrorist action. He also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas for his work in gathering weapons. He was also the one who hid the bodies and destroyed the evidence.
Prosecutors for the IDF said that Kawasameh did not see the boys as human beings and killed them simply because they were Jews.
The father of one of the victims said that his son was a good student who helped his siblings. Avraham Fraenkel said that his son Naftali wasn’t just murdered…but that he was used as an unwilling tool for terror as Kawasameh hid his body for 18 days.
Kawasameh did not speak at the hearing.
A man who has been called the “new Doctor Death” for following in the footsteps of Dr. Jack Kevorikian has been stripped of his medical license in Maryland.
Dr. Lawrence Egbert has been connected to the suicide deaths of six elderly Marylanders.
“It is undisputed that Dr. Egbert participated in six suicides in the state of Maryland as either a Senior Exit Guide or as a members only exit guide,” the Maryland Board of Physicians wrote in their revocation of Egbert’s license.
“Dr. Egbert reviewed their applications and medical records and recommended accepting them as members,” the board wrote. “Dr. Egbert attended their suicide rehearsals. He held each member’s hand and talked to him or her.”
Egbert, who law enforcement officials say is connected to over 300 deaths across the nation, is currently awaiting trial in Minnesota for helping residents there end their lives. He had previously been arrested in Georgia but charges were not filed.
Egbert says he will appeal the decision and claims that assisted suicide is “in the Bible as legitimate.”
Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico.
A Massachusetts woman is under arrest after she vandalized a church and then tried to attack police with a metal crucifix in the same place a church’s nativity scene was vandalized.
The crucifix had been donated after a nearby church was vandalized when a baby Jesus was stolen from their nativity scene and replaced with a severed pig’s head.
Amarellis Cermeno of Haverhill, 54, was arrested on charges including “assault with a deadly weapon, malicious destruction of property and destruction of a place of worship.”
Police were called to La Iglesia Biblica Bautista around 3 p.m. Tuesday after someone had written “666” in large numbers in 15 different places on the church building. Police found Cermeno nearby carrying a large metal crucifix that she used to attack police.
She is being held without bail. She is undergoing mental health evaluations.
A Queens, New York man was arrested after he was overheard talking about killing police. A witness called the NYPD after hearing 38-year-old Elvin Payamps talking in a TD Bank line about having guns at his house to commit the crime.
“I’m going to kill another cop. We should do it before Christmas. The cop should have been white that was killed. I always have a gun on me,” the witness said Payamps told a friend on a phone call.
The witness called 911 but Payamps left before police arrived at the bank. He was found getting into a car near the bank. After finding marijuana in the car, he was arrested.
“They should have killed two white cops instead of the Hispanic and Asian if the guy really wanted to send a message,” Payamps allegedly told police after his arrest.
At Payamps home, officers found a 9mm pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun with serial numbers scratched off them. He also had two bulletproof vests and a set of brass knuckles.
He is being held on $500,000 bail.
Police praised the witness for reporting the threat. They called on all New Yorkers to take seriously anyone who talks about killing police officers in the wake of the murder of two officers by someone seeking retribution for Eric Garner and the events of Ferguson, MO.
A woman was arrested Tuesday after she attempted to tear down the Satanic Temple’s display in the lobby of the Florida Capitol.
Susan Hemeryck, 54, told police officers she was sorry but that it was “not right” to allow the anti-Christian display.
Hemeryck tried to remove the display as an officer stopped her and said she had to put it back. She responded by trying to tear down the display until the officers subdued and arrested her.
“It’s just wrong, when you remove baby Jesus two days before Christmas and put Satan in his place — that just can’t happen. I couldn’t allow it to happen,” Hemeryck told the Associated Press “I was there at the right time and the right moment and I needed to take a stand against Satan.”
Hemeryck faces a charge of criminal mischief. She has no criminal record.
“I just yanked that little devil off the fishing line,” she told the AP when asked if she had any regrets. “I should have just done a better job and finished it off for good.”
The man who ambushed and killed two New York Police officers has been arrested several times for petty crimes and has been described as “violent and suicidal.”
28-year old Ismaaiyl Brainsley also spent two years in prison for firing a stolen gun near a public street in Georgia.
New York Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told NBC that they had discovered the gunman had tried to commit suicide last year. The mother of the gunman’s ex-girlfriend, who he shot after an argument Saturday morning, told the NYPD that she had been afraid of him.
Friends of the gunman have been telling media that he was a peaceful, “God-fearing” man and they were shocked to hear he had committed the crime.
“This would’ve never crossed my mind for him to do something like this,” friend Jay Romero told the New York Daily News. “It brought tears to my eyes. No human has the right to take any human’s life, that’s wrong. What he did is a cowardly move. I don’t know what he went through, what was on his mind.”
An Illinois resident has been charged with plotting terrorism against Israel.
Adam Everett Livix, 30, has been charged with possession of weapons. Israeli police say that he intended to blow up various Jerusalem holy sites. Police said they have evidence that he turned down an officer from Palestinian officials to assassinate President Obama during his 2013 visit.
“He categorically denies the charges in the indictment,” Livix’s attorney Gal Wolf said. “He says it is nonsense.”
Livix reportedly had overstayed his visa in Israel for a year.
The Justice Ministry said Livix later cooperated with his roommate, a serving soldier in the Israeli military, to obtain 3 pounds of explosive material to blow up the unidentified Jerusalem holy sites. The ministry said police discovered the plot in October.
Livix had fled to Israel after facing criminal charges in Indiana.
A young girl’s decision to give life to her unborn child resulted in her losing her own.
Now a New York man will be going to prison for her killing.
A jury deliberated about an hour before convicting 22-year-old Christian Ferdinand on a second degree murder charge in the death of 14-year-old Shaniesha Forbes. Ferdinand met the girl on Facebook in 2012 and met up with her for sex. She text messaged him a few months later saying she was pregnant with his child and would not abort the baby.
“Are you serious? Kill that [expletive],” Ferdinand texted back to her. He then killed the teen when she met him at his cousin’s house by smothering her with a pillow. He then stuffed the girl’s body into a suitcase, burned it and then threw it into lake.
“He intentionally smothered a 14-year-old girl to death and burned her body to get rid of the evidence,” prosecutor Robert Walsh told jurors on Monday. “He had a problem that needed solving. He didn’t want to pay child support, and Shaniesha got in the way.”
Ferdinand actually told investigators he didn’t think the killing was a big deal. He asked them if they could just give him community service for the murder.
He faces 25 years in prison. Ironically, the medical examiner said it was likely the girl was not pregnant in the first place.
Police and security personnel have arrested the leaders of a Sudanese Christian church that refused to surrender their property and possessions to the government.
Authorities stormed the compound of the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church on Sunday and arrested church leaders who were leading a prayer vigil on the remains of a home destroyed the previous week by the government.
Rev. Daud Fadul, elder Fathi Hakim, elder Nouh Manzoul, deacon Iman Hamid and Tilal Mafishi were taken to the Khartoum North Police Station after they refused to stop praying and worshipping on the site.
The members of the church have been maintaining a round the clock vigil to keep the government from destroying the rest of the church’s property.
A Muslim businessman went to the government and told them that he owned the land, so the government has sided with him to remove the Christians from the land and demolish the church.
The government has forcibly removed Christians from their homes and land after the formation of the mostly Christian South Sudan in July 2011. They claim that any Christian land was owned by people who are now in South Sudan.
